I have a mac running Debian Linux Sarge and I am planning on selling it. Well I installed Debian and had the system running with KDE and KDM just fine, I then shutdown the machine and set it aside for a few days.

When I booted it up again a few days later -- so that I could put a some html documents on it for whomever buys it, like the root password, and the password for the one user I put on it, in addition on how to change the passwords should the buyer not know linux much. I had the default user login to kdm automatically so that the user did not need to know the initial password to gain access to the machine -- kde failed to load the screen went black then came back to the terminal login. When I logged in as root and attempted to start kdm the screen flashed the familiar gray screen of an X-Server starting then flashed black and brought me back to the terminal without any errors. Upon using startkde I get an error stating that kde cannot connect to an x-server, additionally I get all sorts of other errors then it returns me to the command prompt. I also have Gnome installed and it is debians default desktop enviroment so by using startx I was able to load GNOME, however, GNOME popped up all sorts of errors stating that this that and the other could not load and therefore I cannot access some features. GNOME was working just as well as KDE was prior to my shutdown.

I cannot find for the life of me a solution to this on the Internet after searching. Does anyome have any idea what caused this and how to fix it?!

Thankyou all

Alex

as root type /etc/init.d/kdm stop, then type startx. If it don't start it should show you the errors it encountered. Also check the log files (/var/log/...) for more details.

Let me clarify this I can get X to load because GNOME will start up, but once the x-server loads and GNOME start to load GNOME also gives me several errors while loading, for instance the GNOME panel will not load, the GNOME desktop will not load the only thing that loads is the GNOME menu bar. Additionally I had another computer configured identically which I setup for myself except that I did not automatically load kdm. Like the other one I am having problems with I had set this one aside for a few days disconected from the power I tried this one last night and kdm would load but when I logged in the KDE loading screen froze when loading the panel, then the machine rebooted itself, when I attempted to start kde from the comman line I recieved the same errors as the other one I am selling.

THe errors are something like


xsetroot cannot start X server

Cannot connec to kdeinit

shutting down kde

and it returns me to the command line I recieve the same error when running as root as well.

What is really odd about this is that both machines were working fine, then after being set aside and not used for a matter of 3 days unplugged from a power outlet, they no longer load kde. I can;t figure out what could cause them to simply not load kde, and further why GNOME would suddenly have issues as well. When they were shutdown properly and just unplugged.

Alex

Have you tried running base-config?

Thanks I tried base-config to no avail.

What follows below is the output from startkde from the command line maybe this will help.


xsetroot: Unable to open display ' '
xset: Unable to Open display " "
startkde: Starting Up....
ksplash: Cannot connect to X server
kdeinit: Aborting. $Display is not set
Warning: Connect() failed: No such file or directory
ksmserver: Cannot connect to X server
startkde: Shutting Down
Warning: CAnnot Connect to X server

THis output comes from the regular user on the system who had kde setup prior to my shutting it down.

THe output from root when running startkde is similar

Xsetroot: Unable to open display ' '
xset: Unable to open display " "
startkde: starting up....
Kwin: Cannot Connect to X server

THen it proceeds to attempt to load kpersonalizer (kde had not been set p when kde was working) and it loops attempting to load kpersonalizer until I break it with ctrl-C of course kpersonalizer cannot run because kde is not running.

I am at wits end my main concern is, if I reinstall the system and get it working properly again, when I disconnect it and ship it to the buyer when they turn it on will this problem happen again? That is bad for bussiness, I don't want my buyer having a non working (from their standpoint non-GUI) system.

Like I said above kdm will load, and I can login but kde won't load.

Alex

If there's nothing worth saving on the disk, it might be easier and faster to just go ahead and do a fresh install.

This may be out on a limb and feel free to tell if it is, however, both machines were disconnected from power for a few days and I think the CMOS batteries are low, could a reset in the hardware clock cause issues like this? I know the hardware clock was reset because when I booted them up the hardware clock was set for aug x 1956 which it obviously is not.

Alex

I know at this juncture I will have to perform a fresh install, however, when the buyer gets the computer I cannot afford to have this happen if it is shipped and disconnected from the power for 5-6 days in transit.

Alex

Well after purchasing the $15 CMOS battery that this Mac uses, I installed the new battery and went on to reinstall Debian. Well...After installing the debian base system I installed the desktop and file server selections, after waiting an hour for these to install I went and rebooted the system GDM came up! However, I wanted to use KDM, so I uninstalled GDM and installed KDM, well guess what? KDM wouldn't load it would flash for a split second on the screen then go back to the terminal. Arg!!! startkde gave me the same problems, and GNOME also gave me the issues as I explained in my first posting.

So I reinstalled again! this time I performed individual package selectiong and installed the system with both KDM and GDM, well GDM loaded fine, KDM would not!, however, kde would load via GDM, whew....I logged in through gdm a few times and finally becase I really wanted kdm I tried dpkg-reconfigure kdm, then at the ncurses screen I selected kdm as the login manager to use, and guess what, it worked. I guess there was no ryme or reason to this problem it was just wierd.

on a side note I determined via additional research that the error I was recieving for startkde had to do with X not being started, or not tied to the localhost screen, I never found a true solution to perform these tasks, but oh well. I am happy it works now, that is all that matters to me.

Alex